The Survivor
by MillyBee
Summary: 51 marines are sent to discover what happened after the Alliance lost contact with the new colony on Akuze. One-shot take on the Sole Survivor background, rated M to be safe!


The ground vibrated against her feet, each thud like an ominous drumbeat to accompany her racing heart. She looked to her squad mates – only 14 marines left out of 51 including herself – and met the wide, terrified eyes of her best friend.

They had enlisted together at 18, joking that they'd both be heroes, but never had they imagined that they'd experience a massacre such as this. Jessie had always been so cocksure and reckless, but they'd been together through thick and thin and they both knew they'd always have each other's backs.

In this hell, though, it didn't matter. The remaining members of Emily's platoon were running out of ammunition, and her face was slicked with sweat from trying to keep the biotic shield up around all 14 of them. She didn't know if it would grant her team any reprieve if that _thing_ should choose to attack again, but she had to try. They had to come up with a plan.

They had been sent to Akuze after Alliance had lost contact with the team sent to colonize the planet. Alliance had feared the worst, but the marines had picked their way through the intact settlement and found no one. The settlers were gone, and there were no bodies. Instead, blood covered almost every surface, peppered with small scraps of skin. It was as though the settlers had just exploded, and not a single member of her team had any idea what sort of monster could have caused the haunting scene they had found.

And then the ground had erupted and the platoon had been scattered. Johnny Palmer hadn't gotten up since being thrown into the air by that huge worm; the amount of blood pooled at his head suggested he never would. Marcella Bowman had pulled herself along the ground to rest her back against a wall, her leg bent sharply in the wrong direction at the knee. Danny Maldonado hadn't hit the ground at all.

The platoon had thrown everything at the monster but it hardly seemed to notice. By the time it drove itself back into the earth, Emily had watched 37 of her brothers and sisters in arms die. The blood of the friends she'd made during her training was now sprayed across the ground and the remaining squad; their bodies devoured by that… that _thing_.

The rumbling in the ground stopped just as her biotic shield failed.

She forced herself to remain upright, not to bend over double and brace her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Not to vomit. Her head was spinning.

"We gotta go; we gotta get back into the settlement. The… The worm isn't going for the buildings. Fields, Pierce – grab Bowman. The rest of us will cover if it comes back." _**When**__ it comes back…_

Jessie nodded once and moved to help Pierce lift Marcella, for once too shell-shocked to talk back. Bowman cried out as they lifted her, unable to keep from disturbing her injury. The white shine of bone could be seen through the tears in her skin, and blood was sluggishly seeping out and dripping onto the ground as the two marines carried her forward.

The ground began to quake once again, and she raised her rifle with wide eyes.

"Come on! Move it!" The team began moving at pace towards the smattering of buildings in the settlement.

The creature burst from the earth with a deafening roar.

"_**RUN!**_"

The ground hissed as the creature spat green liquid at them. One of the marines shouted in pain as his armour melted away and ate into his skin, but Emily focused on running forward. Then Jessie stumbled and Marcella fell. Pierce began trying to gather Bowman into his arms, but their armour was too bulky, and she watched as Jessie began to panic.

"Fields! Forget Bowman, go for the worm!"

She rushed forward, her eyes catching Marcella's as the injured marine's expression morphed into that of someone who knew they were going to die.

"Bowman, stay with me! You're going to be-"

Another large blob of green acid dominated the sky as it raced towards them, and Emily instinctively dodged. Marcella fell, taking Pierce with her. The acid hit them, and within moments their screams of agony fell silent and they were nothing but smears on the ground.

Bile rose in Emily's throat but she swallowed it down, hard.

She turned towards the giant worm as it continued slithering towards them, its toothy maw gaping as though it couldn't wait to devour the remaining marines. The familiar force began to gather within her centre, blue energy swirling around her body, pulling everything in towards her until she shoved her hands forward and _pushed. _The energy pulsed out in front of her as a shockwave and hit the creature, knocking it back a few feet.

As its head began to bob and sway as though disorientated, she grabbed Jessie's arm and pulled him away from the remains of Marcella and Liam Pierce, forcing the team to continue moving and shooting at the monster.

Finally, it burrowed into the earth as the team, now whittled down to a mere 5 marines, staggered into one of the small colony buildings. Automatically, the soldiers began moving furniture to barricade the large windows and doors of the small rectangular structure.

With the sunlight now blocked, Emily flicked the light switch several times and sighed when the lights remained off. In a futile attempt, she walked over to the computer that lay abandoned and untouched on the desk, but it also didn't respond upon pressing the power button.

She dropped into the desk chair and held her head in her hands as her remaining squad mates began to pace back and forth.

"Jesus. Man. What the fuck are we going to do? Did you see that fucking thing? It… It wiped us out. We're all gonna fucking die on this planet."

"Leah…"

"Nah, man. I'm serious. There ain't no way we can kill that thing. Marcie and Liam weren't even dust after that hit."

Emily turned in her chair. "Barrett, you have to-"

"I don't wanna die! I've barely just finished my training! I mean-"

She leapt to her feet, rage suddenly fuelling her tired limbs. "**MARINE!** Will you sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up!"

Leah's legs seemed to give out on her then, and she fell to the floor with a stunned look on her face, her eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare.

Howell and Rios settled themselves on the floor in a similar position as silence fell upon the small group.

"What _are_ we going to do?" Jessie cautiously raised his eyes to hers, discomfited by her unusual outburst.

"I don't know." Emily's voice was barely a whisper. "But we should be safe in here until we come up with a plan."

"What plan?" Howell raised his hands. "We have no ammo, no food, no way to contact Alliance base, and that _thing_ is still out there."

"I'm well aware of that, Howell." She snapped.

"We gotta find a way to get the power back. If we can't take this thing down, we need evac asap." Rios ran a hand over his closely-shaved head and puffed a sigh. "That means going outside and finding the generator, and fixing it all while hoping that worm doesn't get us."

"Assuming it's even fixable with what we can find lying around." Howell muttered, before cautiously looking at Emily, as though he expected another outburst. In truth, she was too exhausted to care.

"We all need a rest before we try and tackle anything else." Emily pulled up her omni-tool to check the time. It hadn't had a network connection since they landed. "The sun will set soon, and we only just finished barricading this place, so… Let's just wait the night out, and see about getting off this planet in the morning. There must be rations or something around here somewhere – you guys see what you can find in this building and we'll check the others tomorrow. Fields and I will see about clearing an area for everyone to sleep."

She was answered with a chorus of "Aye, ma'am", and the group began moving around the room, grateful to have a task to take their minds off the fact that they were still covered in their friends' blood.

Jessie began moving things out of a corner of the room as she looked in vain for anything that could function as a cushion. She realised she had been standing, frozen in the middle of the room when she felt Jessie's hand on her arm.

"You okay, Em?"

Her mouth formed a tight line as she forced her eyes to stop watering, but the tears began to fall anyway as she shook her head. "There aren't even… even any cushions or anything, and everyone's going to have to sleep on the floor, except it won't be everyone because… because Johnny, and Marcella, and Danny, and… and Nathan, and Gwen…" She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood before meeting his gaze, her voice barely a whisper. "They're all dead, Jessie. Nearly our entire platoon. Gone."

His face was serious, and she hated it. Jessie was never serious, he was the joker. The prankster. The arrogant asshole. He was never serious. He pulled her into his arms.

"I know. I know."

Emily reluctantly pulled away after a moment and wiped her face. "Can't let the others see me break down, ya know? Morale isn't exactly… Well, it's pretty non-existent right now, huh?" She forced the corners of her mouth upwards, but it was an empty, humourless smile.

He ducked his head and matched her smile. "Yeah… Yeah. But when we get off this planet, we're gonna be remembered, you know that? The sole survivors of the demon on Akuze."

"Yeah. Sure."

"We found two ration bars in one of the desk drawers. That's all there is." She turned and Rios handed her them.

"Alright, I guess we'll just have to split them up between us. We didn't find any cushions or anything either, so we'll be sleeping on the floor tonight."

She was met with silence as her teammates dropped to the floor in the space Jessie had cleared, as though they were suddenly too heavy to remain standing. She lowered herself down beside Jessie and began splitting up the ration bars. Each share was as equal as possible, though she doubted anyone would have had the energy to complain if they hadn't been.

They ate in silence and finished all too soon, and though they all settled down to sleep, it was hours before it took any of them.

* * *

Emily awoke to the sound of screaming and the groaning of the metal walls around them. Jessie bolted upright the same time she did.

"Howell and Barrett are gone."

"So's Rios." She swore. "And the door isn't barricaded."

They raced to the door with their rifles held up. The sound of screaming seemed to bounce around the small colony until it suddenly stopped, but Emily followed the sound to the clearing behind their building, her back hugging the blood-flaked wall as she peered round the corner.

The night sky was clouded, and the planet's small moon barely afforded any light. The clearing appeared to be empty and she could hear nothing.

But then, movement. A shape she'd originally dismissed as a boulder began to move, sprouting arms and legs as it started to crawl along the ground towards her and Jessie. She cautiously left the cover of the building and approached it, gathering speed as she crossed her fingers that the world wouldn't explode around her again.

The shape collapsed and became still once more just as the moonlight revealed it to be Chester, covered in blood and gore so thick it wasn't clear who it belonged to.

"Howell, what happened? Where are Barrett and Rios?" Chester's eyes fluttered shut but Emily shook his shoulder as roughly as she dared when the extent of his injuries was still unknown.

"The… _thing_… came… back…" He croaked.

Jessie appeared at her side and crouched down, producing the last of the medi-gel as he attempted to find the worst of Chester's injuries.

"And Clay? Leah?" She asked, too afraid to admit she already knew the answer.

"Gone… Eaten." He feebly tried to pull away from Jessie's attentions, trying to tell them that it was a waste but he choked around the words and the warm taste of copper swirled on his tongue.

"He's choking, help me turn him." Jessie nodded and helped her shift Chester onto his side. Blood dribbled out from between his lips and pooled in a sticky puddle on the ground.

"We have to get evac. Now." Her hands began to tremble and she fought against the tears that seemed so determined to flood her vision. 48 marines. 48 friends she'd had since joining the Alliance. 48 dead. She saw Johnny Palmer lying in a pool of his own blood, his body a mangled heap; Danny Maldonado disappearing between the monster's huge jaws; Gwen Jackson landing in a horrific position after the monster hit, her bone gleaming white beneath her skin; Nathan Osborne being crushed beneath the worm's enormous body as they ran; Liam Pierce and Marcella Bowman stumbling, dissolving into nothing, their screams still ringing in her ears.

Chester coughed again and blood poured from his mouth like a faucet as he struggled for breath. The skin on his face was a deathly shade of white and his eyes seemed to sink into his skull under Emily's frozen, unseeing gaze.

"We can't just _call_ for evac, we lost contact with Alliance as soon as they dropped us off that shuttle. I mean, yeah, we could still see about fixing the generators, or Alliance might send someone to see why we haven't been in contact, but that could take days." Jessie tugged her chin round and her eyes fluttered to his. "Em, I don't think we're gonna survive that long."

She bit the inside of her cheek and nodded. "You're right." Her gaze shifted to the ground between her and Chester. "This wasn't supposed to happen! This was a low-risk mission! They shouldn't have-"

"We knew the risks when we joined. Alliance told us what they knew, you can't blame them."

Emily turned her teary gaze on Chester, his breathing growing shallower by the second. "I'm sorry, Chess."

His grey eyes met hers beneath heavy lids and he tried to curl his lips into a smile, though the end result was more gruesome than comforting. "S'okay… See… you guys… on the… other… side…" The smile faded from his face as life left his body, crimson still sluggishly seeping onto the ground. She didn't tear her eyes away until she felt Jessie's hand on her arm, tugging her to her feet.

"Come on. We might not be around much longer, but I'm not making it easy for this thing. Let's head back and see what we've got left."

With one more lingering look, the two remaining marines left the 49th member of their platoon in the dark.

* * *

Both survivors lived to see the sunrise, though neither of them took any comfort from it. They sat, once more, within the small building where they had rested with three of their friends just the night before.

Jessie stood staring out the window that they no longer bothered to board up, but Emily sat in the corner where they had all slept, still able to smell the familiar scent of sweaty comrades that took her back to their time spent training together.

With a sigh, Jessie finally turned towards her. "We've still got your biotics."

"We can't fight it without any ammo, Jessie." She answered, her voice sad. "We couldn't fight it _with_ ammo and 49 other marines."

"I don't give a shit, Em, I'm not laying down and giving up. I'm going out fighting." He grabbed his assault rifle off the desk beside him and stormed towards the door.

"Now?" Emily shot to her feet and followed him into the cool sunlight outside. "Jessie, don't do this. If we can hold it off long enough, we might-"

"I'm not waiting. I'm not spending what might be my last hours alive hiding in a settlement like a coward, with big '_if_'s and '_might_'s hanging over me." She tried to grab his arm to pull him back inside but he grabbed her first and pinned both of hers to her ribcage. "We're not making it off this planet, Em. You've gotta let it go. I'm not going down without-"

"For fuck sake, Jessie! Giving up is exactly what you're doing! You're too scared to try and survive so you're going to give up and let it kill you?! You know you can't win!"

He looked away from her and clenched his jaw. She tugged his face back round by the chin, but he refused to meet her eyes.

"If I have to throw you back in that building to keep you safe, I will." Her voice had dropped to a low, threatening tone.

He opened his mouth to apologise, to admit he'd been a fool and endangered them both.

The ground began to shake.

Their eyes met and shock froze their limbs.

The ground off to their right exploded as the creature erupted from the soil.

The spell broke and Jessie pushed Emily towards the building, shouting at her to run. Her feet began to move, but too fast and she stumbled. He dragged her painfully by the arm as the enormous worm raced towards them, its giant toothed maw open and ready to devour them whole.

They reached the doorway. He shoved her to safety within the metal walls and turned, raising his assault rifle. She fell to the floor under the strength of his push, her head spinning to see him firing upon the monster that was so close to them now.

He stumbled and lost his grip on the assault rifle. The creature hooked his leg out from underneath him with its teeth after a lucky swipe. It saw opportunity and struck, closing its mouth around both of Jessie's legs.

"NO!" Emily shot up, grabbing his hands as he was lifted into the air. She tried to pull him back but the creature was so strong.

He began to shout in agony.

She pulled harder and her blue energy began to swirl around them as she pulled with every ounce of strength she had.

It wasn't enough.

The monster would tear Jessie in half before it let him go.

It reared up, nearly lifting both of them into the air.

Jessie was drenched in sweat, and it dripped onto her face as their gazes met.

"You've gotta let me go, Em."

She shook her head and pulled harder. He grunted at the extra pressure put on his spine.

"Use your… biotics… Be the he-… hero."

"Jessie…" Tears fell onto her cheeks, both her own and those of the man who had been her best friend for as long as she could remember.

"I always lo-"

The monster gave another tug and Jessie's face immediately went slack, his words cut off. Her eyes widened in shock and panic as she desperately searched Jessie's face for signs of life. But the pressure had been too much, and his spine had given up the struggle.

She screamed.

The blue energy that had been swirling around them began to build, fuelled by her grief and her steadily rising fury at this monster that had taken the lives of her friends. Hate and rage dried her tears as her mind gave her a singular goal: vengeance.

Her biotics whipped around her like a wild storm. She drove her feet into the floor as this bubble of pure power continued to build. It pushed gently against the monster's skin, irritating it till it decided to finish its meal.

The creature whipped its head back roughly, and Emily, still clutching Jessie's limp hands, flew into the air before falling into the black void that opened up beneath her. She dodged teeth and landed on the body of her best friend, but the inner walls of the monster closed around her and the acid scorched her skin.

The pain of her skin being melted from her bones was the last straw.

The blue energy exploded out from her body with a harsh battle cry. The monster began to shriek with pain for only a second before it was completely obliterated in a blinding pulse of light.

Emily fell to the ground surrounded by blood and gore of the beast and her friends. Beside her lay one of Jessie's hands. She reached for it and held it in a death grip as she lay on the ground, her body trembling as she sobbed.

* * *

"_There's someone over here!"_

She winced as the silence around her was finally disturbed. Suddenly, she felt hands on her, but she couldn't bring herself to react.

"_She isn't responding, Captain."_

"_She's been out here under the sun for who knows how long."_

An incessant beeping began to torment her ears as blurry shapes moved around her.

"_She's severely dehydrated, and malnourished. She must have been out here like this for days, maybe more than a week."_

"_Bring her on board and take her to the med-bay. She was the only survivor?"_

"_I believe so, sir. We didn't find anyone else alive in the colony or the surrounding area. There was… a lot of blood, sir. And she…"_

"_She what? Answer, Ensign."_

"_She has a hand, sir. She won't let go of it."_

"_A hand? She's catatonic, remove it from her."_

"_She's, uh… She's too strong, sir. It's like it's glued to her."_

"_Dispose of it as soon as you can. I won't have rotting human parts on my ship."_

"_Yes, sir."_

"_And what did you say her name was?"_

"_Her dog tags said Shepard, sir. Emily Shepard. We found another pair nearby, with the name Jessie Fields."_

"_Shepard, eh? The only survivor out of 51 marines. She'll have some scars to bear if she recovers after that."_

She felt something small and cold being pressed into her hand. _Jessie. _The metal dug into his hand and she held them both tightly over her heart.

"_I hope she does recover, sir."_


End file.
